New first team coach. good appointment in my view.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/west_ham/article7061264.ece

“[This is what I think about Steve Clarke: if, at this moment, he had the chance to manage a club, even a big club like Chelsea, he would be ready for that. He is that good.” — Jose Mourinho Steve Clarke was 23 when he left a Scottish football domestic scene he was “already bored of” by accepting a transfer from St Mirren to Chelsea. The same number of years on, he still hasn’t come back for anything other than family visits. After a long playing career at Chelsea, he went on to assist Ruud Gullit and Sir Bobby Robson at Newcastle before returning to Stamford Bridge to work directly under Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant and, briefly, Luiz Felipe Scolari before accepting his current role as Gianfranco Zola’s deputy at West Ham. Some big names there, but Clarke remains determined to make his own.

Having assisted others for so long, Clarke feels the time is approaching to help himself to a manager’s job. It isn’t that he is unhappy at West Ham, where is contracted until 2013, it is just that he won’t be content until he has given being No 1 a go. “It’s the last one to be ticked off,” he says. “I’ve done all the groundwork. I’ve done everything. I’ve been the player, the youth team coach, the European scout, the assistant manager, first-team coach, I’ve worked with a whole spectrum of players, now it’s time for me to be the guy who makes the decisions and takes the stick. To have done so much to get to this stage and not give it a go would be foolish. I have to try it. I just need somebody to give me the opportunity.”

In the likes of Mourinho and Gullit he has won friends, but can he influence the people who make these appointments? There have been expressions of interest from third parties before but, as yet, not a single offer to manage a club. Clarke realises he may be seen as just a supporting act, more at ease in the background, but meeting him it is evident he feels wrongly typecast. “I want to be a manager,” he insists. “I want to be the guy who has all the pressure on him, who makes the decisions and leads the group.

“It’s always been an ambition. It’s a reason why I left Chelsea. People were thinking, ‘He’s in a comfort zone, no ambition to push himself’, but I came out of that to take the job at West Ham. Franco said he would only take it if I went with him and I just felt the time was right for a change. I could have sat at Chelsea and still be there now, but I didn’t really want that Mr Chelsea image, I wanted to push myself on.

“The next step is finding a chairman who’s willing to give me that chance. If you’re asking me, ‘Could I manage a Premier League club?’, I’d have to answer, ‘Yes’. Whether it’s this year, next year, I don’t know. I’ve never been in a position where I’ve had to make a decision on it. I’m still waiting for someone to test my resolve. In my strange little plan, this would be my last job as an assistant and the next one I’d want to be manager. If it works out, great, if it doesn’t then maybe I have to make another detour. I’ve got no problem with people judging me as a manager. When I decide to be a manager, I think I’m going to be a good one.”

Much of that confidence came from his stint with Mourinho. Clarke was a youth-team coach at Chelsea before the Portuguese promoted him as soon as he met him. When Mourinho left and Chelsea threatened to implode, it was Clarke who stayed and detonated the tension. “I’d be a liar if I didn’t think maybe they could have given the job to me on a temporary basis to see how it went when Jose left,” he admits. “It didn’t happen. They gave it to Avram Grant and it wasn’t easy to continue in what was a turbulent time, but he made sure I was completely involved. It was only under Scolari that I felt isolated.

“Jose and Roman [Abramovich] deciding it was time to go their separate ways was a big disappointment, personally, and for the club. They’d have done better to knuckle down, sort it out and try to keep going. Because of the success we had, Jose stands out a mile. As a manager, he was head and shoulders above any other. Working with him gave me the self-belief I could one day be a manager. I didn’t know him and he didn’t know me. It was a professional relationship that developed into a friendship. Now I would count him as one of my friends. I’d like to think he’d count me as one of his.”

Clarke’s story begins with a twist of fate. At 15, he was training at Beith Juniors when St Mirren arrived on the wrong date for a friendly. “St Mirren just turned up,” he smiles. “No-one knew they were coming. Beith Juniors didn’t have all their players so they threw me on the wing and advised me not to get kicked.” He did more than that, impressing enough to be invited to training at the Paisley club and later offered S-forms. He then returned to play for Beith Juniors before eventually accepting a part-time contract with St Mirren, allowing him to finish an apprenticeship as an instrument engineer with Beechams Pharmaceuticals in Irvine. “That gave me a feel for reality,” he says. It hasn’t left him, nor will he let it.

His transfer to Chelsea was a strange affair. Ken Bates, the then chairman, flew to Glasgow under an assumed name to trump a smaller offer from Celtic and clinched the deal by throwing in a Fridge — Les Fridge, a goalkeeper. Clarke, who prefers to make his decisions on instinct, signed without hesitation. “My wife almost fell off the chair when I phoned her and said I’d signed for Chelsea. She thought I was going to Celtic. We went to London the next day,” recalls Clarke. “Chelsea said I could return and start Monday, but I said, ‘No, I want to play Saturday’. Chelsea when I signed and Chelsea when I left, were like two different clubs. It had the same name, but it wasn’t the same club. I can’t say I’m surprised to have stayed south so long because I’ve never hankered to go back.”

While he wouldn’t rule out taking a managerial job in Scotland, a recent return to visit his parents in Saltcoats made him realise the alarming contrast between where he has ended up and where he started. “I went up about a month ago to watch St Mirren versus Dundee United,” says Clarke. “I’d never been to the new St Mirren Park so thought I’d take the chance with a weekend off. I was quite disappointed with the standard. I know it’s a difficult time for everyone, but it seems to be particularly bad in Scotland. I’m looking at the game for young players and don’t see too many that excite me.

“One or two have come out, [Steven] Fletcher at Burnley has done well, but it’s a very big transition now. Surely somebody somewhere will say, ‘Okay, enough’s enough, let’s find a way to improve the standard’. Maybe the SFA will stand up and say we haven’t got the same quantity so we have to look harder for the quality. There must be people within Scottish football looking to improve the situation. Is it to change the coaching structure at Largs? Is it time to freshen that up and encourage new faces, different people with different ideas? I just felt the game I saw was more disappointing than I thought it would be.

“Maybe it was a particuarly poor game, I don’t know. St Mirren are near the bottom, but Dundee United are third. They’ll say, ‘We won the game’, but I expected a little bit more from them. I’m not having a go, it’s just an honest assessment.”

In reference to West Ham, Clarke jokingly puts fingers in his ears at the question of whether they are too good to go down. He doesn’t want to hear that. “Since we went to West Ham there’s been turmoil,” he says of his partnership with Zola. “About 10 days after we went in was the start of the downturn for the Icelandic banks. It’s been difficult, but in a strange way enjoyable. For Franco, it’s a job that looks difficult from the outside, but I can tell you from the inside it’s even more difficult. Our friendship is strong. We resolved at the start, ‘No matter what happens, the friendship is first and the professional relationship second’, and we’ve always respected that.”

Clarke’s rationale to being an assistant is to challenge the manager in private, but always to back him in public. He maintained that even when Gullit confounded him by dropping Alan Shearer at Newcastle. “Behind closed doors I quite like arguing,” smiles Clarke. “That’s my style as an assistant. If you have two people with the same ideas it doesn’t work.” Clarke’s single game as a manager was August 30, 1999. As caretaker at Newcastle he reintroduced Shearer and another deposed favourite, Rob Lee. Newcastle still lost. A 5-1 drubbing by Manchester United at Old Trafford. He has done more than enough to merit a second attempt somewhere soon.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/9353787.stm

Steve Clarke appointed as Liverpool first-team coach
Former Chelsea and West Ham assistant manager Steve Clarke has been appointed first-team coach at Liverpool.

Clarke becomes new Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish's first appointment since the departure of former boss Roy Hodgson on Sunday.

Dalglish said: "Steve is a great addition to our team and I'm delighted we've been able to bring him in.

"I am looking forward to working with Steve alongside [assistant manager] Sammy Lee and our other staff."

More to follow.

Sound appointment. By all account an excellent coach and well liked by the Chelsea players when he worked under Mourinho. What i find strange is why would Clarke accept a 5-6 month contract/job unless something more concrete has been put in place i.e He has worked with Villas Boas at Chelsea who is now Porto coach who has been linked with the LFC job.Interesting

Steve Clarke, played over 500 senior games for St Mirren and chavski. Who brings with him conciderable experience as assistant manager at newcastle, chavski and west ham.

Kenny said "Steve is a great addition to our backroom team and I am delighted we've been able to bring him into the club. I am looking forward to working with Steve alongside Sammy and our other technical staff."

Well to be honest I dont know much about the lad but if he's good enough for Kenny then he's good enough for me.

By the way HP from Liverpoolfc.tv


Hahahaha you type faster than me BKSreds.

I think he's happy to take a short contract as he's currently unemployed- wouldnt read too much into the Villas Boas connection. Wouldnt read anything into, actually.

Ben Smith (The Times) reckons Clarke was shortlisted for 2 managerial positions- probably Championship- Ipswich, Preston, Burnley etc.

hopefully a good appointment, I don't understand Sammy's role though, is Clarke a #2 or 3? too many cooks springs to mind

Surely Sammy Lee is surplus to requirements?

Clarke is the best #2/ 1st team coach in the country bar none.

Also, I am loving how some press are calling the appointment to "Liverpool Boot Room"....

Brings back memories eh lads!